The shift away from manufacturing and toward a service based economy has been going on for a number of years. It has forever changed places like Detroit and Cleveland, where hundreds of thousands of square feet of buildings stand empty and decaying, never to be used again.
The latest revelations about the fraud in the mortgage industry shows how making something out of nothing is pretty much impossible. The feeding frenzy that drove conservative financial institutions to throw aside their scruples and loan money to anyone, no matter how fake the paperwork, has not gone away. It is just constantly changing form. Like some old Star Trek episode, we are hurtling through space chasing an enemy that is always ahead of the authorities and leaves a trail of destroyed people and institutions in its path.
What is the way out? One way is to start making some things again. Real tangible stuff. A wind turbine plant is about to open in nearby Hutchinson KS. It is being built by Siemens as they want manufacturing closer to their markets. This plant will create 900 manufacturing jobs as well as some spin off supplier work.
The growth of alternative energy products and projects could provide all sorts of jobs where we are actually producing something. Real tangible things that also need people to install them and maintain them. The added bonus is they produce clean power.
Wall Street is not the solution, Main street is! We all have to be vocal about the need to kick our fossil fuel addictions. It is going to be hard to change. It is so easy now to fill the tank with gas or just move the thermostat at home. However, it can be just that easy with alternative energy sources, we just have to make the switch.